Halloween!

Halloween always reminds me of my childhood, what a great childhood it was! We have this tree in my parents front yard that is absolutely beautiful in the fall. It drops thousands of leaves every year. We would rake them up and take pictures in them. It was quite the chore to rake them up and took forever. There are many things that I loved as a kid but Halloween was one of my favorites. Mom always made sugar cookies and decorated our house almost as well as she does for Christmas. I remember this pumpkin tole painting sign that she made, it was so cute. What I really loved about Halloween was the Sunny Ridge Halloween Carnival. There is nothing that beats this. I loved the cake walk, cotton candy, nacho's and of course the raffle, where I never won anything. I hated the fact that we had to sell raffle tickets, dad and grandpa usually bought them all though. We usually had so many cakes and would share them with Grandpa and Jeanne. I loved that the whole town or at least everyone in the area would be at the carnival.
Halloween is usually cold in Idaho. Our day usually started out with wearing costumes to school. Yes, they use to let you do it. We would have a parade throughout the elementary school and we would always have Halloween parties at the end of the school day. After school Grandma Betty would bring us donut coupons from Albertsons. They use to have the best bakery. We would get our donuts every year. After we would fix our costumes up or change, because sometimes we would have two, we would go show them off to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson. We would then head across town to grandma and grandpa Youngs where we would have a hot dog roast, grandma's homemade hot chocolate, and then trick or treat around their neighbor hood with all of our cousins. There was one house where we would have the choice between a dime or a pencil. We would then go to Grandpa Swensens for donuts and cider. He lives across the street from the elementary school, where every one would park. So most people would start at their house. The yellow bowel was always full of candy for their trick or treaters. We would then head out and eventually end up home when we were too frozen to walk any farther. We would then go through our candy trading with each other what we liked and didn't like. I haven't been home for Halloween in years. I think next year just might have to be the one I go home for. Sure wish I was there today, but I will be in the ER when the kiddies come in from tripping over their costumes or puking from eating too much candy. I must say that I do love Halloween in the south. The weather isn't too chilly, the fall colors are at their peak, and their is plenty of fall left. Halloween growing up meant winter was around the corner. I remember a few times growing up it snowed around Halloween. Not something you would ever see in the south, thank goodness.